Houston Police Found Not Guilty In Shooting Of Baseball Player

HOUSTON — A Bellaire police officer was found not guilty of shooting an aspiring baseball player in a case that sparked claims of racial profiling, KPRC Local 2 reported.

Jurors deliberated for nearly four hours before finding Bellaire police Sgt. Jeffrey Cotton, 40, not guilty of aggravated assault by a public servant for the 2008 shooting that injured Robert Tolan, the son of former major leaguer Bobby Tolan.

Tolan, 24, testified he was on one knee protesting Cotton pushing his mother when he was shot in the chest at his family’s home in Bellaire early New Year’s Eve 2008 after officers mistakenly tried to arrest him and his cousin for driving a stolen car. An officer typed in the wrong license plate when checking Tolan’s sport utility vehicle.

Cotton said after the shooting, he found out that the car Tolan was driving was not stolen.